As a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle and himself a victim of the inequities of that racist system of government, Ebrahim Rasool was always unlikely to mince his words when it came to assessing the new United States (US) administration.
But in a message to family and friends, South Africa’s top envoy in Washington sounded almost relaxed about the diplomatic ructions that he had caused.
Soon after it was announced at the weekend that he was going to be expelled from the US, Rasool wrote that he and his family were “all packed up and looking forward to returning to South Africa” and said he was leaving the US with “no regrets”.
On Friday, his prepared remarks on the new government in the US were delivered in a thoughtful, measured manner–with no hint of the trouble that they would trigger.
In a webinar organised by a South African think-tank, the 62-year-old seasoned politician was speaking about the policies of President Donald Trump and the implications for Africa.
The talk was coming after weeks of pressure on South Africa from Washington over a controversial land law that resulted in the US cutting off funding to the country.
The US government alleged that South Africa’s white minority was being unfairly targeted. An allegation robustly refuted by the government in Pretoria.
In Rasool’s view, he thought that Trump was “mobilising a supremacism” and trying to “project white victimhood as a dog whistle” as the white population faced becoming a minority in the US.
The comments resulted in sharply divided opinions locally and internationally over whether he was walking a “fine line” as a diplomat in giving an “honest assessment” or “crossed a line” that no ambassador should cross.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was unequivocal in his response, saying that Rasool was “no longer welcome” in the US because he was a “race-baiting politician who hates America” and Trump.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said the US decision to expel Rasool was “regrettable” as the president himself defended the “great deal of progress” the ambassador had been making prior to his expulsion.
RAMAPHOSA
“So this is actually a hiccup… that we are working on straightening out,” Ramaphosa told reporters on Monday, repeating a stance aimed at cooling temperatures.
Officials in his government, however, were more scathing in their assessment of the diplomat’s actions, telling South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper, in an anonymous briefing, that Rasool’s actions were an “isolated incident of somebody who crossed a line that diplomats know they shouldn’t cross”.
In the US, the chairperson for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jim Risch, lauded Rubio for calling out Rasool’s “disgraceful” remarks.
But to those in South Africa who know Rasool, his views on the White House’s policies and t
